Ownership, Board, Agency Costs and Financial Distress: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

To empirically investigate the relationship between the corporate governance characteristics and the risk of financial distress for Chinese listed companies. Binary logistic analysis is used to test the effect of ownership structure characteristics on the probability of financial distress with a total sample of 384 listed companies. Logistic regression results show that: ownership concentration, state ownership, ultimate controller, independent directors and auditors´ opinion turn out to be negatively associated with the probability of financial distress, while administrative expense ratio is positively related with the likelihood of financial distress. Managerial ownership, board size and CEO duality do not appear to be significant determinants.